Jantjabt 27, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



153 



positive ions are in some way linked together, 

 and transmit Thomson's corpuscles with im- 

 mense velocity. There is a certain amount of 

 shaking up involved in this transfer. It is 

 the Joule effect. The positive ions remain at 

 rest, and there are, therefore, no canal rays. 

 When this wire is removed from the spark 

 gap, the gas molecules receive the same com- 

 pression and rarefaction waves, if the man 

 who turns the crank of the machine continues 

 his work. At the negative terminal the air 

 moleciiles are loaded with the corpuscles, in 

 the region of negative glow. They are then 

 urged by convection as carriers, across the 

 Faraday dark space. At the positive terminal 

 the corpuscles pass from the gas into the 

 metal conductor by a rarefaction or drainage 

 process. Photographic plates reproduced in 

 former papers^ show that the drainage lines 

 begin at the positive terminal. In this drain- 

 age column the carriers of the discharge move 

 in a direction opposite to that in which the 

 discharge is being urged. Cakes of ice float- 

 ing on water would behave in a similar way, 

 if a runner should jump from one to another, 

 although the mechanism would be different. 

 Nevertheless, such behavior of cakes of ice ap- 

 pears to be related to the athletics of the foot 

 race, in somewhat the same way that positive 

 ions in a gas are related to the flow of elec- 

 tricity in a power circuit. 



Francis E. ISTipher 



JOINT MEETING OF MATUEMATIGIANS 

 AND ENGINEERS AT MINNEAPOLIS 



Theee years ago in connection with the con- 

 vocation of the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science in Chicago, a joint meet- 

 ing of mathematicians and engineers was ar- 

 ranged through a committee of the Chicago Sec- 

 tion of the American Mathematical Society. This 

 meeting aroused much interest and resulted in 

 the appointment of a committee of twenty, under 

 the chairmanship of Professor E. V. Huntington, 

 of Harvard University, to consider the whole 

 question of the teaching of mathematics to stu- 

 dents of engineering in this country, and to report 



' Trans. Acad, of Sc. of St. Louis, XIX., Nos. 1 

 and 4, Plates X., B, XX., A, B and C, and 

 XXI., A. 



its recommendations to the Society for the Pro- 

 motion of Engineering Education at its summer 

 meeting to be held at Madison, Wis., in June, 

 1910. This committee was constituted as follows: 

 Philip R. Alger, professor of mathematics, U. S. 

 Navy, Annapolis, Md. ; Donald F. Campbell, 

 professor of mathematics, Armour Institute of 

 Technology, Chicago, 111.; Edmund A. Engler, 

 president of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 

 Worcester, Mass.; Charles N. Haskins, assistant 

 professor of mathematics, Dartmouth College, 

 Hanover, N. H. ; Charles S. Howe, president. 

 Case School of Applied Science, Cleveland, Ohio; 

 Emil Kuichling, consulting civil engineer. New 

 York City; William T. Magruder, professor of 

 mechanical engineering, Ohio State University, 

 Columbus, Ohio; Ralph Modjeski, civil engineer, 

 Chicago, 111.; William F. Osgood, professor of 

 mathematics. Harvard University, Cambridge, 

 Mass.; Charles S. Slichter, consulting engineer of 

 the U. S. Reclamation Service, professor of ap- 

 plied mathematics, University of Wisconsin, 

 Madison, Wis.; Charles P. Steinmetz, consulting 

 engineer of the General Electric Company, pro- 

 fessor of electrical engineering. Union University, 

 Schenectady, N. Y.; George F. Swain, consulting 

 engineer, professor of civil engineering, Harvard 

 University, Cambridge, Mass.; Edgar J. Town- 

 send, dean of the College of Science and professor 

 of mathematics. University of Illinois, Urbana, 

 111.; Frederick E. Turneaure, dean of the College 

 of Mechanics and Engineering, University of Wis- 

 consin, Madison, Wis.; Clarence A. Waldo, head 

 professor of mathematics, Washington University, 

 St. Louis, Mo.; Gardner S. Williams, consulting 

 engineer, professor of civil, hydraulic and sani- 

 tary engineering. University of Michigan, Ann 

 Arbor, Mich.; Calvin M. Woodward, dean of the 

 School of Engineering and Architecture and pro- 

 fessor of mathematics and applied mechanics, 

 Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.; Robert 

 S. Woodward, president of the Carnegie Institu- 

 tion of Washington, Washington, D. C. ; Alex- 

 ander Ziwet, professor of mathematics, University 

 of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich. 



In the early part of its investigation the com- 

 mittee collected a large amount of information 

 in regard to the present status of mathematical 

 instruction for engineering students. Since that 

 time, however, a much more inclusive inquiry has 

 been undertaken by the International Commission 

 on the Teaching of Mathematics, of which the 

 American Commissioners are Professors D. E. 

 Smith, J. W. A. Young and W. F. Osgood. In 



